Wednesday, November 10, 2004

The most dangerous dream.

This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfection.
- Saint Augustine.

A long time ago, on a continent far, far away, there was a man, and he had an idea. It was a fairly simple one, truth be told; of life, liberty, and happiness. The naïvety of it was staggering, and true to form, this idea turned out to be more complicated than it seemed, as most simple things eventually do.

Skip to the here and now, and my hasn't the world changed. There are telephones and t.v., cars and quantum physics, aeroplanes and atomic weapons. Technology has it's foot on the accelerator, and the needle's in the red. One would think that the planet today would be barely recognisable, but amid the mercurial swirlings of society one thing remains constant. Fashions come and go, crazes pass in the blink of an eye, but human nature will never change.

For we are creatures who dream. We hope, we plan, we aspire to greater things.

It doesn't sound too bad, does it? I've touched on the importance of hope in an earlier rambling, but I fear I may have neglected to mention one vital ingredient in this witches' brew. The capacity for reason, for tolerance and understanding. For there's nothing more frightening than a man who knows... not just believes but knows that he is in the right. No doubts will assail him, and nothing anyone can say will ever sway him from his course.

The dream of a better world can be a dangerous thing. It's for the greater good, after all; those who stand in your way deserve no sympathy. If they only saw what that well-meaning man sees, they would understand. The ends justify the means, surely, when the end is such a beautiful thing?

Beware the man who lives for a perfect world; to him life is valueless. All that exists now could be bettered - and it will be, if he could just... reach... that dream. Those ground beneath his feet, they understand, right?

Right...?